Malachy Coney
Malachy Coney is a writer and cartoonist from Belfast. He grew up in Ardoyne in the north of the city. His first notable comics work was a two-episode installment of Third World War, "A Symphony of Splintered Wood", co-written with Pat Mills and painted by Sean Phillips, in issues 22 and 23 of Fleetway's anthology Crisis in 1989. Mills had taken on various co-writers for episodes dealing with specific geopolitical situations, and Coney's episodes concerned Northern Ireland's "Troubles". In 1993-94 he wrote the three issue series Holy Cross, each issue a self-contained story set in the same district of north Belfast, published by Fantagraphics. The first issue was drawn by Davy Francis, the second by English artist Chris Hogg, and the third by P. J. Holden. Coney and Holden also collaborated on the Holy Cross graphic novel The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, published by Fantagraphics in 1997. He self-published a number of small press comics during the early 1990s, including The Good Father, a story of family and sexuality, and a gay-themed parody superhero comic, Major Power and Spunky, drawn by Sean Doran, which also appeared in the anthologies Gay Comics and Buddies, and in a one-shot published by Fantagraphics' Eros imprint in 1994. Eros also published Coney and Holden's The Dandy Lion in 1997. A third gay superhero parody, The Simply Incredible Hunk, was drawn and self-published by Holden. In the mid-1990s he and Doran created Catholic Lad, a response to the photostrip Orangeman, for the local arts magazine dv8. In 1997 He contributed to the Belfast anthology DNA Swamp, writing the Irish mythological superhero series "Keltor", illustrated by Christian Kotey, and the one-off strip "Lie Dreams of a Homo Pacedermus", drawn by Doran. In 1998-1999 he had a run on Marc Silvestri's The Darkness from Top Cow/Image, initially co-written with Garth Ennis. The "Spear of Destiny" story arc introduced a new character, the Magdalena, who has since appeared in her own comic. He plotted and co-wrote, with Steven Grant, the "Hell on Earth" storyline for Harris Comics' Vampirella Monthly in 1998. The same year he co-wrote a short animated film, Second Helpings, with director Joel Simon, about a chubby 8-year-old girl and her dreams of being model-slim. From 2003 to 2005 he wrote and drew "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", a full-page comic strip based on his observations of Belfast life and events, for the Northern Irish political and cultural magazine Fortnight, to which he also contributed articles and illustrations, and self-published the first issue of Good Craic Comics in 2003. He also contributed to the Belfast anthology Small Axe. He has contributed to the online multimedia anthology Tales of the.... His first contribution was "The Colour of Love", a full colour strip created in the early 1990s with painted art by Sean Hamilton, his second a one-page topical strip called "The Coney Express". In 2012 he scripted, from an idea by Rob Curley, the historical adventure series Noe the Savage Boy, drawn by Stephen Downey and published by Atomic Diner. Gallery Holcyrrosscover1.jpg|''Holy Cross'' #1 (1993) Majorpower1.GIF|''Major Power and Spunky'' (1994) Holy Cross 2.jpg|''Holy Cross'' #2 (1994) HolyCross3.jpg|''Holy Cross'' #3 (1995) Moonlookedown.jpg|''The Moon Looked Down and Laughed'' (1997) DANDYLION01.jpg|''The Dandy Lion'' (1997) 2008-06-09-hunk cover.jpg|''The Simply Incredible Hunk'' (1997) Coney-ouija-board.jpg|"Ouija Board, Ouija Board" (2003) Set164 01.jpg|''Good Craic Comics #1 (2005) Coney-Lost-in-the-Horse-Lat.jpg|Illustration from Fortnight (2005) Noe the Savage Boy.jpg|''Noe the Savage Boy, 2012 Comics bibliography *"Third World War: A Symphony of Splintered Wood", ''Crisis #22-23, co-written by Pat Mills, art by Sean Phillips, 1989 *"The Geek", Crisis #22, art by Jim McCarthy, 1989 *"The Demon Scribbler", NutScrewsWashersNBolts #1, art by Sean Doran, 1990 (appeared as "The Demonic Scribber", re-drawn by Patrick O'Connor, in Star Comics issue 1, 1992 **''Major Power and Spunky'', self-published, 1990 **"Major Power and Spunky", Gay Comics #20, 1993 **[https://sites.google.com/site/necrokomicon/major-power-spunky Major Power and Spunky], Fantagraphics/Eros, 1994 (originally published in dv8) **[https://sites.google.com/site/necrokomicon/quiteaguy Quiteaguy], self-published, 1994 **"Major Power and Spunky", Buddies #4-5, 1995 *"Wyrmwood", Toxic! #24, art by John McCrea, 1991 *''Major Power and Spunky, art by Sean Doran *The Good Father, self-published, 1993 *Holy Cross'' **''Holy Cross'', 3 issue series, art by Davy Francis, Chris Hogg and P. J. Holden, Fantagraphics Books, 1993-1995 **''The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, graphic novel, art by P. J. Holden, Fantagraphics Books, 1997 **"Jimmy's Letter", 1 page, art by Sean Doran, date unknown *The Dandy Lion, art by P. J. Holden, Fantagraphics/Eros, 1997 *The Simply Incredible Hunk, art by P. J. Holden, self-published by Holden, 1997 *"Keltor", ''DNA Swamp #1-3, art by Christian Kotey, 1997 *"Lie-Dreams of a Homo Pacedermus", DNA Swamp #1, art by Sean Doran, 1997 *"Wake Up", Gay Comics #25, art by Sean Doran, 1998 *''The Darkness'' #11-22 (#11-14 co-written by Garth Ennis), art by Joe Benitez and others, Top Cow/Image, 1998-1999 *''Spririt of the Tao'' #1-5, co-written by D-Tron and Billy Tan, art by Billy Tan, Top Cow/Image, 1998 *''Tales of the Darkness'' #1-4, 1/2 (#1-2 co-written by Brian Haberlin), drawn by various artists, Top Cow/Image, 1998-1999 *''Vampirella Monthly'' #10-11 (#11 co-written by Steven Grant), art by Louis Small Jnr., Harris Comics, 1998 *"Ouija Board, Ouija Board", Fortnight, 2003-2005 *''Good Craic Comics'' #1, self-published, 2003 *"A Little Night Music", Small Axe #?, drawn by Stephen Downey, 2005 *[http://www.talesofthe.com/wordpress/?p=390 The Colour of Love], painted art by Sean Hamilton, Tales of the..., 16 May 2010 *[http://www.talesofthe.com/wordpress/?p=591 The Coney Express], Tales of the..., 22 August 2010 *''Noe the Savage Boy, plot by Rob Curley, art by Stephen Downey, Atomic Diner, 2012 External links *Read [http://www.myebook.com/index.php?id=12762&option=ebook ''The Simply Incredible Hunk] online at MyEBook *Seán Doran's Necrokomicon, including comics written by Malachy Coney Media *Ian MacKinnon, "Comic Tale of Belfast ghetto a hit in US", The Independent, 30 July 1994 *''Holy Cross'' #1-3 reviewed by Anne Rubenstein, The Comics Journal #178 *Marty Neill, "Comic book guy", Creative NI, 6 June 2003 *Cue and Ehh? interview on Shuffle, 2006 *Tammy Moore, "Unforbidding Planet", [http://www.creativewritersnetwork.org/Download%20Documents/ulla1.pdf Ulla's Nib #1], pp. 17-18, 2007 *''Fractured Visions, video documentary by Craig Smith, including the 2D Comics Festival, Bridgeen Gillespie, Malachy Coney, Declan Shalvey and David Lloyd, 2010 Online reference *ComicVine References *''Zum! (small press review zine) #4 (1992), #6 (1993), #9 (1995) *Michigan State University Comic Art Collection: "Coné" to "Confessors" *[http://www.sirrealcomix.ws/page/g/GayComics20-1.htm Gay Comics #20] and #25 at Sir Real's Underground Comix Classix *''Second Helpings'': Irish Film Board, Northern Ireland Screen *[http://www.atomicavenue.com/atomic/titledetail.aspx?TitleID=5294 Vampirella Monthly at Atomic Avenue] *''Fortnight'' #415-422, 424-429, 431-433, 435-436, June 2003-August 2005 *Stephen Downey interview at Jazma Online, 22 April 2009 Category:Creators C Category:Comics writers Category:Comics writer-artists Category:Belfast creators Category:Self-publishers Category:Fantagraphics Books Category:ComicVine Category:Former featured articles Category:Cartoonists Category:Irish small press comics Category:UK comics Category:US mainstream comics Category:US alternative comics